Feminine protection – whether it's pads, napkins or liners, this essential women's hygiene product has been the last frontier for marketers who seek to embellish every product with “designer” cachet. No longer, at least not in Japan where new colorful pads sport stylish designer prints.

Naked lamps can be harsh on the eyes, but also on your interior design. An interesting lamp or chandelier shade allows your light to make a design statement that can change the whole atmosphere of its surroundings. Take this mildly spooky Lampshade by British textile artist Julie Roberts...

Despite having been announced only a little over a week ago, details on the upcoming sequel to Rock Band, Rock Band 2, have been released in the most recent edition of Game Informer. Harmonix, the developer of Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 2, Rock Band, and now Rock Band 2, released details about several songs packaged with the game, the two drum sets that you can purchase for the game (yes, TWO different drum sets), and several other BIG announcements!

Starbucks is closing over 600 stores in the USA alone this year as the coffee giant goes through a painful contraction, yet its Japanese subsidiary continues to grow while posting very tasty sales numbers. Is Starbucks Japan doing something different, or are they destined to echo the mother company's boom and bust?

Imagine having your very own shopping robot who crawls the mall while you relax at home? Even better, you remotely control your robot shopper's movements and see through its electric “eyes”. You can also stop imagining... robo-shopper is (almost) here!

With the hot summer months here, ice cream is more popular than ever. So while you're sitting in your cool air conditioning (or not), check out some interesting reading from our archives about the latest ice cream innovations and inventions.

Asahi is the name of the new beer buddy robot gadget from Japan. He can be your own private beer pouring, beer-storing pal if you cough up 36 seals found on special bottles of the beer by Asahi. Read on if you need some new drinking buddies.

When it comes to chasing evil spirits away from your home, there's nothing like a gargoyle. People think of gargoyles and dragons going with Medieval or Gothic design, but a gargoyle doesn't need to match anything else in your home, not in color or design. A gargoyle just has a place, in its own right, because it has a job to do; it's your security system.

Japan's asbestos cancer “time bomb” ticks louder day by day as the nation's average population gets older and decades-long incubation periods for asbestos cancer and other diseases caused by asbestos exposure end. Now, several new technologies developed in Japan may make cleaning up the asbestos mess not only easier, but safer as well. Hmm, does WALL-E know about this?